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Persia• Mazdaism – Two contrary gods: Ahura Mazda (also Ormuzd), the creator god who is full of light and good, and Ahriman, the god of dark and evil – Dualist: separates good and evil (Egyptian and Mesopotamian gods were capable of both good and evil) – Ahura-Mazda is not responsible for evil – Does not have a face (no painting, no statue) – Does not live anywhere 48

Persia• Mazdaism – Two contrary

Logos 1: A Brief History
of God 22 March 2006 Piero Scaruffi www.scaruffi.com Please do not duplicate Only for personal use Work still in progress Copyrighted photos 1

A Brief History of God•Prehistoric
beliefs in the supernatural•How the idea of the afterlife developed•Evolution of God from Semitic to Indo-Aryan gods•Monotheism•Did "god" mean the same thing to different civilizations?•Why do humans believe and what makes them believe?•Neural correlate of the mystical experience 2

Bibliography• Alan Segal: Life After
Death (2004)• Alberto Siliotti: The Dwellings of Eternity (2000)• Mircea Eliade: A History of Religious Ideas (1982)• Joseph Campbell: The Masks of God (1959)• Michael Persinger: Neuropsychological Bases of God Beliefs (Praeger, 1987)• Paul Bloom: Descartes Baby (2004)• Jacques Cauvin: The Birth of the Gods and the Origins of Agriculture• Marija Gimbutas: The Gods and Goddesses of Old Europe: 6500 to 3500 BC 3

Method• 140 slides• The are
optional• Please hold your questions till the end• Recommend a book only if you have read dozens of them• Please no Hollywood movies… 4

A brief History of LifeFirst
land creature420 million years ago First mammal 200 million years agoFirst dinosaur Lucy 5240 millions years ago 3.5m years ago

What Early Humans Knew• Prehistoric
beliefs (before 3,500 BC) – Natural world pervaded by supernatural forces – Humans can negotiate with the spirits that control the natural forces – There is a hidden world that shapes human destiny – Some people (shamans) can make contact with the spirits – The Earth and the Sky are deities – There is an afterlife for some people – Worship of ancestors 8

Mesopotamia• The Elohim – The
world is surrounded, permeated and ruled by the Elohim, myriads of nameless supernatural beings (spirits) inseparable from one another 16

Mesopotamia• Assembly of gods –
A religion for this life, not for the afterlife – Anthropomorphic gods – Associated with the forces of nature – Each city is the property of a deity – Deification of kings – Unified pantheon 17

Mesopotamia• Creation myth (“Eridu Genesis”,
17th century BC ) – Nammu: the Mother who gave birth to Heaven (An) and Earth (Ki, later Ninhursag) – All the gods are sons of An and his wife Ki – Enki, son of An and Ki, created the world – The gods created humankind and the Sumer cities – Humanity was created to serve the gods – The gods lived in the Eden (Bahrein island?) – Enki ate a forbidden plant and was cursed by his mother who cursed his rib which was cured by the goddess of life Nin-ti – Enlil, the god of the storm, caused the Flood 18

Mesopotamia• Evolution of theocracy/Politics II
– Deities become an aristocracy, and humans their servants – Deities come to be worshipped like aristocracy, in palaces (temples) with servants (priests) and household chores (rituals) 22

Mesopotamia• Evolution of theocracy/Politics III
– Deities come to be identified with the political leaders of the community/city/nation – Each city comes to be dominated by a deity, and cities often grow around the main temple – The main deity of a city becomes a virtual ruler of the city, defending it against enemies and enforcing justice within the city – Will of the deities communicated to the human rulers via dreams, omens, natural events 23

Egypt• Maat: goddess that personifies
cosmic harmony and a model for human behavior• Tuat as the immortal omniscient creator and as the Underworld• Ptah (and later Amon) as the creator, and the other gods as a manifestation of his creative powers• Horus as the ancient sky-god• Creation myths – Different creation myths from ancient times Maat 27

Egypt• Obsession with the Afterlife
– Everything in this life is functional to the Afterlife – The entire economy of the state revolves around the preparation for the king’s afterlife 28

Egypt• Obsession with the afterlife
– Palaces (pharaohs) are comfortable but negligible (mud bricks and wood) – Tombs must be monumental and eternal (today we visit tombs, not palaces, Giza not Memphis) – The best furniture is for the tomb, not for the palace 29

Egypt• Tomb not as the
resting place of the dead, but as the instrument by which death can be overcome, a place of connection with the heavens and the afterlife• Death as the gateway to eternal life• Death = immortality 30

Egypt • Gods behave like
humans: mythology not theology • Each city is dedicated to a god and has its own “religion” • The pharaoh is the intermediary between gods and humans (son of the Sun god Re) Anubis weighing the heart of the deceased 31Pharaoh Speaks with the God Horus

Babylonia/ AssyriaHammurabi judged Altar of
Assyrian king Tukulti-by a god (1750BC) Ninurta I (reigned 1244-1207BC) in Ashur : The king approaches the throne of the god, who is represented as a mere symbol • Hammurabi stele • Tukulti stele 35

Shang and Zhou China• Pseudo-monotheism:
Heaven/Tien – The universe is a single whole/organism – But divided in three main realms: • Heaven (omnipotent) • Earth (Nature) • Human society• Polytheism: the world is inhabited by a multitude of spirits (one for each Tai-shan natural phenomenon) and ghosts (China) – The supernatural is natural 37

Shang and Zhou China• No
creation myth: no need to explain the universe, no need to explain where the Chinese race came from• Religion is natural philosophy: no holy wars, crusades, jihad, etc, no fear of damnation, no anxiety of salvation, no prophets, no dogmas• Shamanic heaven is on Earth – There are wonders on Earth – There are dangers in the Otherworld 38

Japan• Shinto as practical life
– Pantheon of spirits (“kami”) personifying aspects of the natural world – Yorozu-yomi: there are gods for everything (food, moutains, rivers, rocks) – 800,000 gods, mostly the deified heroes of the nation – A religion to deal with the everyday problems and issues of people 41

Japan• Shinto as natural philosophy
(1,000 BC?) – Humans depend upon the spirits (kami) – Humans can affect Nature by properly honoring the gods/spirits – Humans become impure through their participation in society and they purify themselves by worshipping the spirits 42

Japan• Shinto as natural philosophy
(1,000 BC?) – A set of rituals/legends explaining the relationship between the human world and the forces of nature – Emphasis on nature, cleanliness, purity, order, sincerity, tranquility • Nature is the manifestation of the divine • Most important festivals are celebrations of the beauty of nature 43

Japan• Shinto – Shinto deities
do not dwell in heaven but in the surrounding nature – Shintoists do not worship the heavens but the surrounding nature – Reaching outward not upward 44

Japan• Shinto – Shinto buildings
do not dominate the surrounding nature, they are part of it – Shinto monuments are non-monumental – The garden is a microcosm of nature 45

Persia• Mazdaism – Originates among
the peaceful, sedentary communities of northern Iran (Zoroaster’s “Asha” or “people of righteousness”), constantly threatened by the raids of nomadic horsemen who practice animistic polytheism (Zoroaster’s “Druj” or “people of the lie”) 47

Persia• Mazdaism – Two contrary
gods: Ahura Mazda (also Ormuzd), the creator god who is full of light and good, and Ahriman, the god of dark and evil – Dualist: separates good and evil (Egyptian and Mesopotamian gods were capable of both good and evil) – Ahura-Mazda is not responsible for evil – Does not have a face (no painting, no statue) – Does not live anywhere 48

Persia• Zarathustra/ Zoroaster (b 628
BC) – A revealed religion (God revealed the truth to some people) – Eschatological (at the end of time, a messiah will come) – Frasho-Kereti (“Rehabilitation”): apocalyptic ending/judgement that takes place on Earth – Ristaxez: resurrection of the body – Hell (but only temporary: everybody eventually is “saved” by Ahura-Mazda) 51

Judaism• Stage 1: Stage of
the elohim, and one "el" is the el of Abraham• Stage 2: El the nomadic god of the Jews – God of the Jews – Nomadic God (not tied to a sanctuary but "god of the father") – God talks – God of punishment and wrath – Negative god ("thou shalt not") – Religion is obedience to God – Indifference towards unbelievers 54

Judaism• Stage 3: Yahweh/YHWH the
human-like god of the Jews - Moses (1,275 BC) – Not transcendent: a bodily god – Not infinitely good: capable of both good and evil – Not infallible: makes mistakes – Not omnipotent: his power is limited to the land occupied by the Jews – Not spiritual: the reward is material reward for this life, not for the afterlife 55

Judaism• Stage 4: Yahweh/El the
only god, a faceless god• Elijah (875 BC): El – There are many gods, but El is the only god of Israel (”El Elohe Yisrael", Gen. 33:20)• Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, Micah (8th/6th c BC) – El and Yahweh become synonymous – Monotheism: Yahweh is the ONLY god (the gods of the other nations do not exist) – Omnipotent god – Yahweh is an inscrutable god, no longer concerned with the problems of the Jews 56

Judaism• An immortal religion –
Not a people that chose a god, but a God who chose a people – The only religion that survived the destruction of its kingdom 59

Judaism• Creation myth – God
created the world for humans – Humans disobeyed God and were expelled – God exterminated humans with a flood but told Noah to build an ark and restart the human race – God made a pact with Abraham to give the Jews a land – The Jews escaped to Egypt and became slaves – God sent Moses to lead them to the Promised Land and gave him the Ten Commandments – The Jews disobeyed the Ten Commandments – God sent them prophets to redeem them – God will eventually send a Messiah 60

Hinduism/ Vedas• Rig-veda (1500 BC)
– Remnants of Dyaus, the original sky-god of the Indo-Europeans (replaced by Varuna) • Dyausa Pita is the Sky Father, divine consort of the Prithvi and father of Agni, Indra and Ushas • Dyausa Pita and Pritvi Mata are one divine entity, the Dyavaprthivi 64

Hinduism/ Vedas• Rig-veda (1500 BC)
– Several contradictory creation myths • Creation by fecundation of primordial waters • Creation by dismembering of the giant Parusa • Creation by the One • Creation by Visvakarman • Creation by impregnating the mother Earth, I.e. goddess Prithivi, by the Dyausa Pita by way of rains • Tvastr, the "first fashioner”, who created Earth and Sky 65

Creation Hymn from the Rig
Veda (Translation by V. V. Raman, University of Rochester)Not even nothing existed thenNo air yet, nor a heaven.Who encased and kept it where?Was water in the darkness there?Neither deathlessness nor decayNo, nor the rhythm of night and day:The self-existent, with breath sans air:That, and that alone was there.…When and how did creation start?Did He do it? Or did He not?Only He, up there, knows, maybe;Or perhaps, not even He. 66

Hinduism/ Vedas• The Vedas –
Yajur-Veda (1000 BC): rites of sacrifice • The will of the gods is not as important as performing the correct ritual (I.e. the priest is more important than the gods…) – Sama-Veda: religious hymns – Atharva-Veda (900 BC): magic spells • Gods are less important than the appropriate spells • Prajapati supreme creator of the universe 67

Greece• Religion as rational superstition
– Gods have no effect on the working of the universe – Thus Science and Religion never contradict each other• No organized church – Priests (oracles) are mere interpreters between gods and humans – No theocracy: powerless “priests” – Priestly duties were duties of every good citizen, just like many other duties 74

Greece• Eleusinian mysteries – Eleusis’
sanctuary built in 15th c BC – Most important religious festivals – Lasted for 2,000 years – Four stages in the revelation of the mysteries – Demeters search through the underworld for her daughter Persephone, abducted by Hades – Demeter as the bringer of immortality to humankind 77

Greece• Cult of Dionysus/Bacchus –
Legend: Zeus resurrected his (Zeus’) son Dionysus (born of a god and a mortal) and created the human race from the ashes of his assassins, the Titans – Dionysus has both a divine and a human nature – His death and resurrection saves humans – Dionysus died each winter and was reborn in the spring – During the orgy the human soul becomes one with the god 78

Greece• Orphic mysteries – Mystery:
humans have a dual nature: the earthly body (which comes from the Titans and feels pain) and the divine soul (which comes from Dionysus and leads to ecstasy) – After death, people who lived in evil will be punished, while the souls of people who lived in holiness will be completely liberated from Titanic elements and reunited with Dionysus – Orphism vs Bacchism: purification instead of orgy, permanent instead of temporary union of soul and god, immortality instead of mortality 79

Rome• Roman vs Greek religion
– A religion for the protection of the state, not of the individual – Morality = patriotism – Roman gods did not quarrel – Roman gods did not mingle with humans – Priestly class reporting to the king/emperor – Romans not interested in individual immortality – Immortality via the state: the Roman Empire is eternal – Respect for all gods of all conquered nations 82

Hinduism/ Upanishad• Problem of evil
– Karma of the person causes apurva that causes good/evil to the person – Misfortune is caused by prior wrongful deeds (is not only deserved but even required) – Causality is a loop from the individual back to the individual – Cosmic justice is totally independent of gods – Samsara: endless cycle of death and rebirth, transience of ordinary life 85

Hinduism/ Upanishad• Obsession with suffering
– Wisdom is the realization that everything is suffering – But the realization of suffering does not lead to pessimism – It leads to salvation – The realization of suffering is the first step towards salvation – Salvation is liberation from suffering – Salvation is achieved by transcending the human condition 86

Hinduism/ Upanishad• Salvation – Brahman:
the absolute, the soul of the world – Atman: the divine within the self, the soul of the individual – Salvation: union of the individual soul (“atman”) with the universal soul (“brahman”) – Salvation is liberation (moksha) from the illusion of the multiplicity of the world (maya) – Moksha: liberation from maya and experience of the brahman 87

Hinduism/ Upanishad• Brahman • The
ultimate cosmic principle • The first cause of the universe • The source of existence • Pure knowledge • Eternal, infinite, and conscious being • It is the subject, not the object, of thought • Brahman “is” the self (atman) of all beings 88

Hinduism/ Upanishad• Salvation – The
order of the soul is a reflection of the order of the absolute – Thus understanding one’s self is understanding the absolute – Self-knowledge is knowledge of the absolute 90

India/ Shramanas• Shramana: wandering ascetic
individual who renounced the world to find salvation in spiritual meditation – Siddhārtha Gautama/ Buddha (Buddhism) – Vardhamana/ Mahavira (Jainism)• Liberation can be achieved by anybody irrespective of caste• Liberation is to be achieved by each individual, either by introspection or by following other individuals• The priest is replaced by the master• The cycle of rebirth (saṃ sāra) is the cause of sorrow• Nirvana: the state of having escaped from the cycle of rebirth 92

Buddhism• Nirvana – Four-fold negation
of nirvana: • it is not true that we exist or do not exist, • and it is not true that we both exist and not exist, • and it is not true that we neither exist nor do not exist • i.e. nothing can be said about nirvana 95

Buddhism• Dharma – No atman:
no enduring consciousness, consciousness is a substance not a being – Dharmas (elements of existence) do exist – Nothing exists for any period of time (no duration to dharmas, dharmas are momentary) – Each moment is an entirely new existence – Personal identity through time consists of continuity of karma 96

(Theravada) Buddhism• Atheism – No
god: no Brahman – No soul to start with – Gods are not creators of the universe, and cannot influence human life. They are subject to the same cycle of rebirth – Enlightenment is actually possible only for humans 98

Hinduism/ Smriti• Smriti (200 BC)
– The Vedas are “shruti” (“what has been heard from the gods”). “Smriti” (“what is remembered”) is a compendium of the Vedas/Upanishad for ordinary people – Notably the sanskrit epics (Mahabharata, Ramayana) – Vehicle: human incarnations of the gods ( e.g., Krishna and Rama) 101

Hinduism/ Smriti• Mahabarata – Spiritual
synthesis of the main Indian philosophical schools – The world and human life are full of ambiguities – No precise definition of good and evil – Three paths to religious realization • path of deeds (karma yoga) • path of knowledge (jnana yoga) • path of devotion (bhakti yoga) 102

China• Daoism – The fundamental
pattern is the cycle – The cycle is due to the interplay of yin and yang – Contraries are aspects of the same thing – ”Dao" (empty void of infinite potential) is the supreme being – "Qi" is vital energy in constant flux that arises from the “Dao” – Matter = energy (matter “is” Qi) 105

China• Daoist creation myth of
5th c AD – There was a cosmic egg for 18,000 years – Heaven and Earth were in a state of chaos or cosmic egg for 18,000 years. – When the cosmic egg broke apart, Heaven, Earth and P’an-ku were born – Pan-ku originated humans 106

Greece/ Philosophia• Herakleites – Knowledge
of the absolute can only come from reasoning (logos) not from perception – The fundamental unity and order of the universe “is” the logos (proto-pantheism) – Logos permeates everything – Logos as the personification of cosmic justice and distinct from the gods• Parmenides – Only one substance which is "the one”, indivisible and infinite (monism) – Reality is a changeless whole (not the plurality that we perceive) – The (changing) world of the senses is an illusion107

Greece/ Philosophia• Anaxagoras – Nous
(mind) created the world as we know it• Democritus – The soul is made of atoms like the body – Humans do not have a special status in the world• Platon – The Demiourgos/Theos created the world – The universe is a rational being with a soul – Theos is the supreme good• Aristoteles – Theos is the first motor – Theos is the first substance – Theos is form without matter 108

Christianity• Salvation – God created
humans to live in a new paradise – Humans used free will to disobey God (Adam’s original sin) and are now condemned to Hell – The original sin is inherited by all humans – Humans cannot change their destiny – Humans can be saved only by divine grace – Salvation has been secured for humans by Jesus – Salvation is obtained by faith in Jesus alone – Jesus will return at the end of time – God will hold a universal judgment 112

Christianity• Christianity vs Hinduism/Buddhism –
Linear progression of time instead of cycles – Jesus bodily miracles vs Buddhas mental miracles (a more materialistic view of life) – The individual is responsible for her damnation but not for her salvation 115

Christianity• Christianity vs Greek religion
– Rationality replaced by superstition – Virtue replaced by faith (the only virtue) – Justice in this world replaced with justice in the next world – Free exercise of reason replaced with obedience to Christian dogma – Greek tolerance for foreign faiths replaced by Christian intolerance 117

Persia/ Manicheism• All prophets of
all religions revealed only part of the truth• Zoroaster, Buddha, and Jesus were all prophets sent by the same god• Mani is the last prophet• Dualism: there is no omnipotent good deity, but two competing (and equally powerful) deities 120

Islam• A realistic religion –
No holy spirit – No miracles – No saints – No implausible events (such as resurrection of Jesus, immaculate conception) – Not a kingdom in heaven but on Earth – The future history of the human race on Earth 124

Summarizing...• What religions have in
common – Theology: why are we here – Cosmology: what is out there – Ethics: how we give meaning to our life • Immortality for the race (society) – Immortality for some individuals » Immortality for all individuals – Liturgy: memorizing knowledge and passing it on to future generations about why, what and how 131

Inferring…• Biology of religion –
All religions ultimately provide a who, a what and a why – Religion is in our brain (in our genes): • We believe what we believe because our brains are wired to believe it • Religion happens to us the same way language happens to us – Then why fewer and fewer people believe in gods? 132

Inferring…• Sociology of religion –
Religions are metaphors – They were written as metaphors and they were understood as metaphors – Today we live in the age of the literal (science) – Religions are understood as literal – Therefore rational westerners repudiate the Bible, which is difficult to believe literally – Ancestral thought was metaphorical – Literal thinking is a modern invention 133

God as a cognitive faculty•
Why do humans believe in God?• Where is God in your brain?• Where is the neural correlate of the mystical experience? 134

God as a cognitive faculty•
It is easier for humans to believe in miracles than in Einstein’s Relativity or in Quantum Mechanics• Proof of the existence of God: one can “feel” it (whereas one cannot “feel” Einstein’s spacetime or Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle)• Paul Bloom: we have an innate predisposition to divide the world into mind and matter, and to perceive a non-material essence• Hallucinogenic drugs help achieve the mystical experience• Collective hysteria helps achieve the mystical experience 135

God as a cognitive faculty•
What do collective hysteria and hallucinogenic drugs have in common?• They paralyze parts of the brain, so that perception is reduced and the ability to perform reasoning is even further reduced.• They close, not open, the “doors of perception”• That “is” the mystical state 136

God as a cognitive faculty•
Speculation – God is a remnant of a pre-human state of existence, one in which humans were not “sapiens” – One can grasp the sense of God by returning to the mental state of primitive hominids – All apes believe in “God”, because their brain is permanently in the state in the “mystical state” – All lower mammals, that do not have the neo- cortex and our cognitive faculties, may feel “God” 139

God as a cognitive faculty•
Speculation – The mystical experience is achieved by (generally speaking) switching off the neocortex – The mystical experience is achieved by behaving like a mammal or a reptilian 140

God as a cognitive faculty•
Speculation – Religion may simply be an evolutionary leftover, governed by the older (irrational) parts of the brain and superseded by reason whenever we let the newer (rational) part of the brain take over – Humans believe in miracles because the older brain is genetically programmed to believe in miracles – Humans do not believe in Relativity or Quantum Mechanics because the human brain is not genetically programmed to believe (instinctively) in it 141

God as a cognitive faculty•
Three fundamental “religious” beliefs: – 1. That gods created the universe; – 2. That humans are entitled to an afterlife; – 3. That pleasing the gods will make the afterlife more pleasant and even eternal• Is this due to the interaction of the new rational brain with the older irrational brain? 142

God as a cognitive faculty•
Is there a gene of religion? – Paul Bloom’s “Is God an Accident” – Scott Atrans “ In Gods We Trust” – Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that plays a powerful role in mystical experiences – A gene that enables dopamine action is the dopamine D4 receptor gene (DRD4) – Laura Koenig in Journal of Personality” (vol 73, p 471, 2006) 143